Chemical and olfactory analysis of essential oils of Hedychium gardnerianum, Hedychium flavescens, Pittosporum senacia and Psidium cattleianum from Reunion Island

InformationFour essential oils (EOs), rarely described in the literature, and never for samples originating from Reunion Island, were studied by gas chromatography with flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and olfactometry (GC/MS-O).The chemical composition, as well as the main olfactory properties, of the following four EOs were determined: longose (Hedychium gardnerianum), yellow ginger (Hedychium flavescens), bois de joli coeur (Pittosporum senacia), and Chinese guava (Psidium cattleianum).The chemical compositions were found to be rich in monoand sesquiterpene hydrocarbons.The main components of H. gardnerianum flowers EO were β-farnesene (12.1%), α-cadinol (9.7%) and α-farnesene (7.1%).The composition of essential oil from Hedychium flavescens leaves is reported for the first time with β-and αpinene (47.8 and 18.7%, respectively) as well as β-caryophyllene (17.5%) as the main compounds.The main components of P. senacia leaves EO and P. cattleianum floral tops EO were identified as nonane (36.2%) and β-caryophyllene (43.7%), respectively.With such a chemical composition, herbal, citrus, green, pine tree, and in some cases floral and woody odors were determined by GC/MS-O.